This lapse into myopia by one of football's smartest thinkers will disappoint Gunners-supporting Olympians, who might have expected their leader to respect their efforts the way he asks them to support his work at London Colney and the Emirates.

One morning next summer Wenger will wake in his north-London home to find the metropolis throbbing with some of the 26 sports and 39 disciplines that make up the Games. Not everyone will be sporting running spikes or carting a javelin. A fellow resident of his adopted city may point out to him that football joined the modern Olympics in 1908 – in London, mark you – and is not an impostor sport dropped on the carnival by lobbyists or sponsors.

Frankly, football is leaving a terrible stink at the biggest sporting event in this country's history, about which many of us harbour political reservations without wishing to trash the whole fiesta. From the minute football killed off the idea that Wembley should be a national stadium and not just a palace for England and the cup competitions, the round-ball religion has done nothing but violate the Olympic vision.

Top of the list of curmudgeons are the Scottish Football Association, who within minutes of Stuart Pearce and Hope Powell being appointed to the men's and women's teams rushed out another self-important statement warning of the dangers to their "independent membership of Fifa" and their "representation on the International Football Association Board". If anyone seriously thinks Fifa would expel Scotland for not stopping Aston Villa's Barry Bannan from wearing a GB shirt in an Olympics in his own country, they are in serious need of Valium.

The Scots have concealed their loathing for the Team GB concept behind this constant fretting about their place at the international table. Worse, by leaning on Scottish players to not take part, they have displayed contempt for the ambitions of individuals who may just like to tell their grandchildren they played in the Olympics. It was painful to see Pearce having to tip-toe round the sensibilities of people who value their own role on committees more highly than the right of young players to pursue this one‑off opportunity.

We know where this comes from. To some in administration, the world's favourite game is so damned important that the brain itself becomes a ball, with valve and stitches. The sport becomes so closed off that people cannot conceive of the Olympics as a life‑enriching experience for the participants.

Imagine Britain's players in the Olympic village, mixing with canoeists and rifle shooters. Maybe not such a good idea for Ashley Cole.

This is a chance for British football to come down from its mansion and reclaim kinship with the wider world of sport. Not since 1960 have a GB team booted a ball around under the rings. More than half a century ago they beat Taiwan 3-2, drew 1-1 with Italy and lost 4-3 to Brazil. But they were gold medallists three times from 1900 to 1912. There is a history, a tradition.

Seeing a GB women's team contest the medals for the first time will raise the nation's spirits in less complicated fashion. But the men's side will have to traverse a minefield to take on Brazil or Argentina, who view Olympic competition as an important developmental step.

A British trait is to never stop to ask how we appear to the rest of the world. When the thousands of Olympic athletes look this way, they see a monumental legal battle to determine which football club will occupy a £547m Olympic Stadium built partly with public money. They see a breakdown in that process and a further £100m bill for the taxpayer so the arena can be shrunk and then rented to West Ham (probably).

They see, in short, the all-conquering power of football, which they know anyway from their weekly diet of Premier League hype. Wenger's objections are consistent with his policy of resisting anything that might stop him beating Wigan 3-0 (and that includes international fixtures). Managers are entitled to defend their patch. But there is no justification for disparaging the Games as a track and field event with a load of nonsense wrapped around.

Lots of us would like to see Gareth Bale and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in Olympic action. Jack Wilshere would like that honour, too. England's best young midfielder, remember, was driven into the "red zone" by overplaying, and missed the European Under-21 Championship as a consequence. An ankle injury has wiped him off the chart this season.

You see where this is heading. Wenger is in no position to overexpose a 19-year-old in Premier and Champions League action and then tell him that to play in the Olympics would be a physical test too far. If British football wants to look down on the London Games, then fine, but it could at least not stand in their way.